Step Six

Boy a lot happened here didn't it???

Using my value finder I realized I was nowhere dark enough in the dark areas of her neck. It's really scary to do this dark! Trust me I never get over that fear!

Grabbing my French Gray and holding my breath I did the deed and really darkened my baby girl's neck down. Stepping back from my drawing board I was pretty disappointed with myself. I didn't like it at all.

Sooo........... I grabbed my trusty blending brush and scrubbed her down. Big mistake. I used too much pressure. I lost a lot of the dark! I couldn't believe it.

I blended it all again with Pink and carried it over into the right side of her neck following the contours I saw in my reference photo. Then I blended it again with light umber.

It made me feel better. The blending brush really helps get rid of the little white flecks that makes skin tones look ashy and dry. I wasn't expecting it to remove as much of the color as it did though. That was a bit of a surprise. Next time I will not scrub so hard and use a lighter touch with the brush.

Rachel step Seven

All that French Gray was really making me nervous. I HATED her neck. It was looking like she used to when she came in from horseback riding! I wanted to blend those two lighter areas in her neck a bit more and make them look like they belonged as well.

Using light umber I soften those edges of French Gray and darken the lighter areas on the left.

Then I went over her entire neck with a #1 pressure and a very sharp Beige, blending and filling in those tiny little holes that make skin look like it needs a good dose of lotion. It made a huge difference.

Rachel step Eight

OK I am feeling better about the little area under her chin. I knew the next step was to address that. I like it now. I think that it gives perspective to her face and lifts her face away from her neck.

In this small area under her chin I have walked up the value scale from my first two washes of cream and light peach. I used at least two hues from every value level. A yellow and a pink. Using a #1 pressure I took it all the way up to henna and then a little used just the tiniest wash of 90% French gray.

I still didn't like the way her neck looked so I ever so lightly brushed it pulling color from the dark side over to the lighter side on the right. It softened everything and I really like the way it looks now and it didn't lift too much color. Whew! That's a relief!

I started this work at 11 AM today and ended about 3:30 with a break for lunch and beating my husband twice at backgammon. I've been on a winning streak for the last 3 days and it's killing him :o) His turn will come!

Eyes

At this point I feel like she needed that other eye in place.

I completed it similarly to what we did in class yesterday.

This sequence represents about 2 hours of work.

I wish these photos were a bit clearer so you could see better what a difference the contouring is making.

After adding each new value layer I dropped back level and blended the new layer with the value color one step lower. It helps to smooth and mix the color as I go. I will do that again as I move up the value scale and again at the end when I have all the color on her face.

I hope to get more time in on this tomorrow. I want to finish her neck first I think. That dark area will guide me in my choice of color for the rest of her face.

Step three

That dark area on her neck was just screaming at me to come next. I continued to contour her entire face and neck with yellow ocher and blush pink. I used henna to bring out her nostrils.

You can see that I am starting to contour the areas around her nose and up the center of her nose. Again with blush pink.

Through all of this I am using a #1 stroke. Very very light. Around her nose where I have begun contour her cheek folds and dimples I have taken the pressure up to about a #3.

Under her chin I have gone up the value scale to level 4 using goldenrod.

Next step

After using my value finder I decided I needed to deepen her skin tone so I covered her entire face with deco pink.

I have also started to contour her face a bit with Jasmine.

I used peach to define her nose a bit.

August 2009 CP Class

This is basically where I left off in class yesterday. I have done a bit to Rachel's hair by darkening it with light umber on the left side. I have added some burnt ocher to both sides.